 at a workshop by artist John Baby (left) at the art room of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in December.jpg.image.160.84.jpg)
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A scene from the play Viswavikhyathamaya Mooku at JT PAC, Ernakulam on Sunday, July 6, 2014. Photo: JT PACHe lived a simple life. His illiterate self denied him fancy jobs and compelled him to serve as a chef at a hotel. Nobody knew who he was. All of a sudden on his 24th birthday, things changed. The celebrations were on, and he had his first glass of alcohol. Disgusted by the bitterness of the drink, he decided to confine himself to a corner and continue doing what he does best - cooking. Suddenly, the world had witnessed a miracle. His nose had grown longer than ever before. Soon, it was all mayhem. With cameras surrounding his residence as well as his place of work. Annoyed by all the attention he was receiving and the nuisance caused by the paparazzi, his owner fired him. For days, his mother and he starved. Until one day, his giant nose had become a unique way of earning his income. Soon, everybody, from politicians to medical researchers, wanted to know more about him. He was honoured by many. Thus, was the story of Mookan and the tale of The World-renowned Nose.
Viswavikhyathamaya Mooku is a theatrical adaption of Vaikom Basheer's book that talks of the masked approach of those living in a society. The play began with a ballet of sorts leading to the introduction the masked personalities in the society. No sooner had the abstract beginning come to an end, than it dawned upon us that we were about experience reality from an alternative perspective. "The book talks of how everybody in the society puts on a mask. You never get to what really happened. Upon reading about it, we felt that we could use the concept in the literal sense and get the actors to wear masks," said the Director of the play Chandradasan. The conceptualisation of the piece had taken place after the drama troupe attended a specialised workshop on masked theatre recently.
A scene from the play Viswavikhyathamaya mooku at JTPAC, Ernakulam on Sunday, July 6, 2014. Photo: JT PACThe play depicted how a mere piece of information is hyped so as to distract the world of other core problems. While the presentation was satirical in nature, it had showcased how the absence of facial expressions does not hamper the true essence of the tale. The director had cleverly used a combination of gibberish and Malayalam while crafting the dialogues for the play. When asked why he chose to do so, he said, "We wanted to experiment with such a technique. If you had noticed, a few gibberish words were repeated throughout play time and again, thereby, enabling people to decide grasp the meaning of the words. It was not possible for us to so called 'translate' each sentence. So we figured to communicate in both languages in parallel," Chandradasan explained.
A scene from the play Viswavikhyathamaya mooku
Video taken on a mobile phone
The presentation also included spurts of humour. Despite the new style of theatre, the drama had connected with the audiences present. One could not help but admit that the story had been very effective by the mere variations in the voices of the artistes. The sets were not elaborate nor was the lighting too flashy. In other words, the element of simplicity had added a certain charm. Interestingly, the group consisted of people from the ages of 15 to 55. Chandradasan said that it had taken the team about 25 days to compile the piece. Indeed, his experiment proved successful. "Most of my plays are rich in music and sets. This time we decided to do things differently," he said.
May be the stage is that platform which speaks volumes of the world around us without having to pen down each word. This was an experience worth witnessing.
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